When I signed up for a UX course at Concordia University, I expected to learn about wireframes, personas, and maybe how to make an app flow look a little nicer. What I didn’t expect was a crash course in human behaviour — the kind that shapes every decision we make, from the apps we tap through to the grocery stores we wander.
Very quickly, I realized UX isn’t really about screens. It’s about people. And people are endlessly fascinating.
UX Is Everywhere — Not Just Online
One of the first lessons that stuck with me was this:
UX is not limited to websites and apps.
Every interaction we have with anything—digital or physical—creates a user experience.
Think about walking into a store.
Why does the entrance flow the way it does?
Why are certain shelves at eye level?
Why do you instinctively follow a certain path, even if you’re not consciously aware of it?
These aren’t accidents. They’re designed behaviours.
And once you notice them in the physical world, they’re impossible to unsee. And honestly? I kind of love it, I love that my eyes have opened to see this.
Humans Don’t Always Make Rational Choices (And That’s the Point)
We like to believe we’re logical. We rarely are.
My course dug deeply into decision-making psychology, and it reframed how I think about design. People rely on shortcuts to make sense of the world quickly. These shortcuts influence everything from what button we press to whether we’ll abandon a checkout line.
A few takeaways that stuck with me:
- People choose the path of least resistance.
If an action feels even slightly confusing or effortful, most users will opt out. - People don’t read — they scan.
Especially under cognitive load. - People rely on patterns.
Familiar structures create a sense of safety and understanding. - People make emotional decisions first. Logic steps in later.
(If at all.)
Understanding this isn’t just academic — it’s a responsibility. If humans default to instinctive, emotional, and sometimes irrational behaviour, designers must create paths that feel intuitive, comforting, and easy.
The Most Important Lesson: Testing Isn’t Optional
Perhaps the biggest “aha” moment from the course was something I already knew intuitively, but had never applied with such discipline:
Just because something makes sense to you does not mean it will make sense to someone else.
And the only way to know that is to test.
Testing strips away assumptions.
It reveals blind spots.
And it protects you from designing in your own image.
I watched design decisions that seemed perfectly logical fail instantly once placed in front of real users. I also watched ideas I was skeptical about outperform everything else because users responded to them instinctively.
Testing isn’t a box to check — it’s the backbone of designing responsibly.
Making Tools Foolproof: A New Lens on My Work
The course changed how I think about design far beyond UX projects. It made me ask new questions about every tool, process, or system I create:
- Is this intuitive without context?
- Can someone understand it at first glance?
- What’s the laziest way someone might use this?
- What’s the most chaotic way someone might use this?
- Does this still work?
Because foolproof design isn’t about perfection.
It’s about building with empathy, curiosity, and humility.
It’s acknowledging that every user brings different experiences, abilities, expectations, and mental models. And real design happens where those worlds meet.
Why This Matters in the Bigger Picture
This course wasn’t just a skill builder — it was a mindset shift. It taught me to look at humans with more nuance and to create things with a deeper respect for how people actually behave, not how we wish they did.
Good UX design meets people where they are.
Great UX design helps them feel understood.
And now, whenever I build anything — a process, a product, a piece of communication — I ask myself:
How can I make this clearer, smarter, easier, and more user-focused?
That’s what Concordia’s UX course truly taught me. And it’s a lesson I carry everywhere.